Inmate tells it like it is

OPINION

BEING IN PRISON

Over the past five years of my recent imprisonment, I've been in a number of Canadian federal penitentiaries, right across the country, everywhere from the Millhaven Special Handling Unit in Ontario, to the Prince Albert Special Handling Unit in Saskatchewan, and now, the Edmonton Institution.

Prison can be a very difficult environment to live in even at the so-called "best of times," but when things are going wrong and you find yourself being transferred all over the country, from one prison stronghold to another, miles away from your friends and family, that which was once "difficult" soon becomes unbearable.

That's what I found from my own personal experiences, anyway. Perhaps this

may not be the case with other prisoners who have had the same misfortune to share my experiences, but I don't think so because we are not so different from one another in this regard.

I am originally from Regina, Saskatchewan. Born, bred, and raised. So it is easily understandable that I was left feeling very much alone when I was shipped to the Millhaven Special Handling Unit located in the Kingston, Ontario region. What hit me the hardest was not so much the fact that I was being sent to one of Canada's two super maximum security facilities, which meant that I would be forced to live under some very extreme and harsh living conditions, but that I was so far away from both friends and family.

When you are in prison, general contact and support from one's friends and family can be very conducive to one's morale and general state of mind. After all, even people who are not incarcerated have the same basic need and desire to know that they are loved and that someone cares about what happens to them. You do not suddenly surrender this basic human need when you enter a prison. If anything, this need is magnified and intensified when one is suddenly and forcibly removed from his home and family, only to be locked up in a totally alien and hostile environment.

The 21 months that I spent locked up im that Ontario prison were perhaps the most difficult time that I have been forced to deal with during the past five years that I've been in prison. It wasn't so much the prison and the harsh living conditions that I had to contend with that lead me to say this, for as a prisoner, one soon learns how to adapt to the environment, regardless how harsh or extreme, because if you don't it will soon overwhelm and devour you totally. This is one of the basic realities of prison that you would do best to learn as soon as possible for your benefit and overall wellbeing.

Prison is not a new experience to me and I found it relatively simple to adapt to

the harsh and inhuman living conditions that prisoners are forced to contend with while incarcerated in a super maximum security prison. What I did find difficult to adapt to was being so far away from my home and family in Saskatchewan. That was one of the few things that I never did learn how to adapt to while I was in the Millhaven Special Handling Unit. Instead, I merely "endured" it.

When I was in that Ontario prison it was virtually impossible for my family to come and visit me because they, being an average poor Saskatchewan Indian family, could not afford to cover the expenses that such a trip would incur. They were having a difficult time just making ends meet and I knew that they couldn't really afford to come and visit with me regardless of how much they may have wanted to. So I wrote my family and told them that I didn't want them to come out to Ontario because I would have felt bad knowing that they would have had to really overextend the family budget in order to cover the cost of such a long journey.

It hurt me greatly to have to tell my family this, and I know that it hurt them as well, but everyone understood that we had to be realistic about the entire situation. When I wrote that letter to my family, explaining the visiting situation, I remember feeling like Iwas on another planet, a planet so far away from my home that my family couldn't even come and visit me.

Not only was I isolated from my friends and family while imprisoned in Ontario, I was also isolated from social interaction with other Indian people. At the time that I was in the Millhaven Special Handling Unit there were only five other Indian prisoners in the entire prison. And although we were in the same prison, our interaction was greatly limited by the way that the Special Handling Unit program was designed and operated. Believe me when I tell you that we all really came to appreciate the company of one another, something that over the years we have all taken for granted. It was really great to be able to sit down in the tiny exercise compound an share some time with another Indian, a brother. Most of us were from western Canada and they, too, much like myself, were forced to go without seeing their families as well. We were all virtual strangers in a strange land and an even stranger environment.

Over the months that were to follow, we developed a very strong bond between the five of us. We became family, a family of brothers, and we looked to one another for the support and encouragement that one would normally look to his immediate family and loved ones for, but these were not "normal" times, nor were our immediate families and loved ones available to us in our time of need. We only had one another to look to for support while we were in this prison so far away from our original homes and families in western Canada. To say that these were very difficult times for us as Indian prisoners does not even begin to explain how it felt to be so totally isolated and alone.

The isolation did not end there, either. There were more. Being super maximum prisoners we were not allowed to participate in any type of Native Brotherhood programs such as the ones that can be found in other lesser security prisons. This was so because programs of this type were not permtted in a super maximum security prison. Not only were we not allowed to participate in any type of Native Brotherhood group activities while we were incarcerated in the Special Handling Unit, but we were also isolated from participating in any traditional ceremonies such as a sweatlodge or pipe ceremony,. This was one of the hardest things for me to deal with, much less accept. Not only had the prison system succeed in isolating me from my friends and family but now they were refusing me a very big and important part of my life.

I was fortunate enough to receive regular visits from an Elders from southern Ontario who would bring me and the other Indian prisoners braids of sweetgrass which the prison administrators reluctantly permitted us to have. If it were not for the caring and concern of that one Old Man who took the time and went out of his way to come to the prison each week, to see how I was doing and to talk to me, my isolation would have

been complete. I owe a lot to that man for doing what he did for me, and I will always remember him and his kindness for as long as I live.

Finally, after 21 months of being imprisoned in the Millhaven Special Handling Unit, it was closed down and all the prisoners were transferred to a brand new special handling unit that was opened to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Needless to say, I was ecstatic over the sudden transfer. At last I was back in the land of my people, and my family. It wasn't long before I began to once again receive regular visits from my friends, family and relation. Although the visits in a special handling unit are all restricted glass visits, I was more than satisfied to just be allowed to see my family and be able to talk to them once again.

Four months after my transfer to the Prince Albert Special Handling Unit, I went before the National Segregation Review Board and was granted a transfer to a lesser security institution, the Edmonton Max. January '85 I was flown to the Edmonton Max, and I havebeen here ever since.

When I first came to the Edmonton institution it was almost like being released from prison altogether. After serving two years in the Special Handling Unit, where you spend most of uour time locked up in a solid steel cell, where you are strip searched and handcuffed every time you leave your cell, where you are given an hour each day to exercise in a small and heavily guarded concrete compound the size of a tennis court. Yes, after going through these indignities and many, many more, I thought that I had died and gone to heaven when I first walked through the gates of the Edmonton Institution. Now don't get me wrong, the Edmonton Max is certainly no paradise but, in comparison to the Special Handling Units, it does have its benefits.

So then, what is the purpose of all this you ask. Well, to begin with let me say that I didn't write this whole article to tell you my life story, for that is not its purpose. I have simply decided to share with you a bit of myself and my experiences to create a scenario that I hope will only help you to grasp the full meaning of what it is that I am about to make an attempt at articulating. For you see, it took me this experience to understand what it is that I am about to say. And since most of you will never ever go through the prison system, I feel it necessary to bring the prison system to you to ensure that my message is not only recorded in your minds, but felt in your hearts as well. For you see,

I have long since reached the conclusion that it is not always enough to just make people aware of a problem that will inspire them to take some form of positive action to correct and alleviate the said problem but that one must also touch their very hearts to ensure their support.

With all that said and done, let me now begin to address the problem which has inspired me to go to such great lengths and to bring your, the Indian community's attention.....

Since my return from the eastern regions of the count